Formal and Informal Assessment of Student Learning
Name: Sarah Evans
I. Assignment Description/Requirements
See Project Page for assignment details.
II. Preparation / Development
1. Reflect on your current assessment practices. How have you been determining what students understand and what they are able to do?
I have been using daily admit questions to gauge the students' understanding of the previous day's activities as well as their prior background knowledge of the current day's topic, as well as practical application assignments designed to give students sufficient practice to master the topics being covered. In addition to these, I have been giving one or two small quizzes per unit and a summative unit assessment at the end of a unit. For example, after one entire class scored no higher than a 3 out of 28 on a quiz, I knew I needed to go back and provide further instruction on the topic before administering the quiz again. I use the admit questions about the previous day's activities to gauge what needs to be reviewed versus what I can move forward on. I use the question on the topic to be discussed to gauge how much background knowledge from previous science classes or other sources they may already have.
2. Describe the concept(s) that you are trying to assess in these assignments. Include a link to the appropriate GSE(s) on RIScienceTeachers. Be sure to include in your description your definition, examples of what it is, why students have difficulty with this concept, and why it is important that you teach this topic
The concepts I have been trying to assess in these assignments is
how individual elements and atoms interact with one another to create various types of compounds and how these compounds differ based on the elements used to create them. This includes everything identifying the type of bonding occurring, predicting the compound that will form from two elements or ions, how to name a compound, how to write a chemical formula when given a name of a compound. The specific GSEs that have been addressed include PS1 (9-11) - 4, PS1 (9-11) - 3
The types of bonding and compounds covered is ionic and covalent. Ionic bonds/compounds are formed between two ions (atoms or polyatoms with a positive or negative charge due to the loss or gain of electrons, respectively) and covalent bonds/compounds are formed when two atoms share at least one pair of electrons in a bond.
Each type of compound has it's own rules for naming, and polyatomic ions (ions consisting of 2 or more atoms bound together by covalent bonds) which have common names that must be memorized. For example, CuCl2 is an ionic compound (it is formed by the Cu2+ ion joining with 2 Cl1- ions) and is named copper (II) chloride, and N2O5 is a covalent compound created by the sharing of electrons between the 2 nitrogen atoms and 5 oxygen atoms to complete each atom's octet and is named dinitrogen pentoxide. Students often have difficulty distinguishing between ionic and covalent compounds, and mix up the naming rules for them (thus naming the CuCl2 as copper dichloride and the N2O5 as nitrogen oxide).
Students also have difficulty knowing how to do the criss-cross method with ionic compounds -- knowing to put the numeric value of the positive charge as a subscript on the anion and the numeric charge of the anion as the subscript on the cation. Or, remembering to account for the charges in ionic compounds when writing the empirical formula from the written name (i.e. not forgetting that copper (II) chloride is CuCl2 as opposed to CuCl or Cu2Cl)
It is important to teach this topic to students in order for them to be able to successfully understand chemical equations, how to balance them and how to determine products from given reactants and vice versa (PS1 (9-11) - 4bb and PS2 (9-11) - 6).
Students who do not understand the concept of correctly writing compounds will not be able to determine how to balance an equation involving the compounds or predict the products of a given reaction -- if they do not understand that certain elements always will take on a specific charge they will write a product with incorrect subscripts and thus have the wrong number of atoms in the product effecting the ability to balance the entire equation.
3. (and 7) Describe an informal assessment that you selected, modified, or designed to address this concept. Summarize the instructions you gave your students and Include a link to the informal assessment here as well.
The informal assessment I designed to address this concept was to have the
students work in groups of 4 to master an individual concept (ionic bonding/compounds, covalent bonding/compounds, multiple bonds, the octet rule and Lewis dot structures, Ions - mono & poly, and binary compounds). Once they mastered their topic they were to create a poster explaining the topic including a title, definition, any rules to the topic, a diagram, and a common example, and present it to the rest of the class as a form of a
modified jigsaw activity. Students were given the list of requirements for their posters, the time limit of 5 minutes for a presentation, the requirement that everyone in the group contribute and participate and a copy of the rubric that would be used to grade the posters & presentations.
4. (and 8) Create a formal assessment. Describe this assessment, including concepts, types of items, and how it was assessed. Include a link to a copy of the assessment here as well.
This was my summative assessment for the unit on bonding and naming, it covered the following concepts: the octet rule, Lewis dot structures, the differences between ionic and covalent bonds and compounds (on the electron level to different physical properties of the two), writing the empirical formula for the ions involved in an ionic bond, naming ionic and covalent compounds given the chemical formula, writing the chemical formula for ionic and covalent compounds given the name, naming hydrates and acids, and a hydrate inquiry experiment. The test was all short answer and short essay questions and was given during a single 66-minute class period. Students who were unable to finish in the time allotted were allowed to return after school or the next class period to complete it. I also allowed one student to answer some questions orally, along with some scaffolding on the topic.
5. Develop the evaluation criteria (or key) for your formal assessment or link it here.
6. Develop the evaluation criteria (or key) for your informal assessment or link it here. This description should include the assessment's features, how it addresses different depths of knowledge, as well as an explanation of how it addresses a scientific practice related to inquiry.
I used the rubric above to grade the presentations and posters. The assessment addressed different depths of knowledge by having students
simply report information as written in the book, interpret information from the book to provide only the portions of the octet rule that are applicable to that specific topic, apply their knowledge by appropriately selecting examples of their topic, synthesis of their topic by creating a graphic representation of the topic on their poster. The posters/presentation were a form of writing scientific explanations where the students had to come up with examples not provided in the book and support their choice with the scientific knowledge they gained on their topic.
How did you assess/provide feedback for these different tasks? This is not clear from your rubric. - fogleman
7. & 8. - Already addressed above.
9. For your informal assessment, upload scans of the work of three or four students. The work of each student should be on a different page. At the bottom of each students' page, you should describe the level of student understanding, e.g. high, average, or low, and describe how this is indicated in their answers. An example of how to do this is here. Note: Remember to name the pages you create carefully, e.g. "Smith S10 - High Performing" instead of "High-Performing." Student Work1 Student Work2 Student Work3
Interesting variation between posters. Students and teachers are in a difficult position when students put forth obvious effort and end up with an incorrect or incomplete product. What type of feedback loop did you set up for these? What steps could you make to insure that final posters were correct and adequate? - fogleman
10. For you formal assessment, describe how you think it addressed the concepts you were trying to assess? How did you modify the assessment to address learning differences or special needs?
I feel that the formal assessment appropriately addressed the topics and concepts of the unit, I had several types of naming problems going both from chemical formula to written name and vice versa. I had open ended questions that were designed to have students demonstrate their knowledge of the topics of ionic and covalent bonding that had multiple possible correct answers and I gave students partial credit wherever possible. I modified the assessment to address learning differences and special needs by allowing the students who needed extra time the opportunity to complete the test after school or the next day. I modified it for one student to be able to answer some questions orally with some scaffolding on the topic.
III. Analysis / Reflection
11. Use both the informal and formal assessments to describe what you learned about what your students understand about these concepts. Use specific examples from both the informal and formal assessment to illustrate your points. What can your students do now that they could not before, and what do they still need to learn?
From both my informal and formal assessment I can see that the majority of my students can identify the valence electrons in elements in the s & p blocks and represent these electrons on a Lewis dot structure. One concept that many students are still struggling with is the fact that all ionic compounds contain a metal while covalent compounds contain only nonmetals. This is evident by the lack of this point on the informal assessment posters and the fact that the students had difficulty distinguishing the types of compounds during the naming portion of the formal assessment. After seeing the results of the formal assessment I did some additional instruction on what exactly ionic compounds are on the atomic level and the molecular level and how it behaves differently from covalent compounds in various chemical and physical reactions.
12. OMIT
13. For your formal assessment only, select one student characteristic, e.g. ability, gender, age, etc) and compare the relative performance of each group. Hint: Use box and whiskers plots to compare the two groups. What do you conclude from this comparison? Why?
The formal assessment had a range of scores from 17- 99.5. The mean score was 61, the median score was 67, and the mode was 70.
When comparing the scores of the senior and juniors in the class (13 students) with the scores of the sophomores in the class (10 students), the data produces the box and whiskers plot below. The median score of the upperclassmen was 53.5, with an upper quartile of 71 and a lower quartile at 27, and the overall range in scores for the upperclassmen was 17 to 97. The median score of the lowerclassmen was 70 with an upper quartile score of 77 and a lower quartile score of 62, and the overall range in scores for the lowerclassmen was 30-99.5. As shown by the box and whiskers plot, the lowerclassmen had a tighter cluster of scoring, with the majority of students receiving at or above the passing score of 65. All of the lowerclassmen in the class are taking one other science class in addition to this college prep chemistry, and so a possible conclusion to draw is that the lowerclassmen scored slightly higher because they have a larger commitment to their science education or have better study habits. To be placed in college prep chemistry students must have done well in their previous science classes, and for the sophomores to be allowed to simultaneously take chemistry and biology they must have demonstrated responsibility towards completing classwork and likely ability to handle the heavier class load. However, the two middle quartiles overlap on both plots so the difference in scores is largely negligible.
14. Describe any ways in which you involved students in self-assessment. How did you communicate what you learned from your informal and formal assessments to your students? What did they do with this information?
Immediately following completion of the informal assessment I had the students do a self-assessment on both their own individual performance/contribution and on their group as a whole. Students used a scale of 1-3 where 3 was the highest score indicating above average presentation and poster, majority of time spent on task, and a 1 indicated a poor presentation missing the majority of the important information, and the majority of time spent off task. I also asked the students to list their individual contribution to their group's project. I used the students self-assessment to influence the individual score portion of the informal assessment. The majority of students were thoughtful in their responses and accurately portrayed the amount of work they individually contributed to their group.
I communicated what I learned from the informal assessment to the entire class immediately following each presentation, making note of any errors or key missing information. For the formal assessment, I gave the tests back and discussed the score range with the class during the next class period. I discussed the most commonly missed items and where in their notes we discussed the topics and when. Any student who scored below a 65 on the test was able to revise their test using the textbook and class notes up to a score of 65. Regardless of how many points they were away from a 65 I had all students doing revisions correct all incorrect answers to ensure they were able to understand all topics.
In addition, the class-wide troubles with going from a chemical formula to written name and back again have resulted in me giving further quizzes on chemical naming. I will lead a class discussion on the topic where I ask the students to use their notes and write the rules for naming various compounds on the board in turn, collaborating to create one document that can be used to study for their quiz. Until 75% of the students can get a 75% or higher on the naming quizzes I will be having them twice a week.
15: Most Important: Compare your objectives for student learning (both in terms of science concepts and practices) to the student learning you observed. What did you learn about your teaching based on the student performances? What will you do differently next time? Why would you make these changes? What, if anything, will you do to improve the assessment instruments?
Based on the formal assessment, only about 50% of the students met the learning objectives for demonstrating the differences between ionic and covalent bonding and compounds, especially with regard to being able to accurately name compounds. Since this is the key concept from this unit upon which the future units are based, additional instruction on this topic is needed. In the future I think I will do more whole-class activities involving naming to be able to monitor all students comprehension levels on the subject and allow them to learn from one another as well. In the future, I will need to word question 23 more specifically, stating that I am looking for physical and chemical differences, and how many minimum specific points I am looking for.
22/24 Nice job overall. You did a nice job analyzing your Ss posters, though it is not clear what feedback you provided them. Your rubric allowed them to see the importance of each portion of the project, but you could make your rubric more detailed in order to communicate higher expectations to your sophomores. Your reflections indicate that you see your students' need for more practice, but you should also think in more detail about the assignments that you used and why your students had difficulty with specific concepts/tasks. - fogleman
Name: Sarah Evans
I. Assignment Description/Requirements
II. Preparation / Development
1. Reflect on your current assessment practices. How have you been determining what students understand and what they are able to do?
I have been using daily admit questions to gauge the students' understanding of the previous day's activities as well as their prior background knowledge of the current day's topic, as well as practical application assignments designed to give students sufficient practice to master the topics being covered. In addition to these, I have been giving one or two small quizzes per unit and a summative unit assessment at the end of a unit. For example, after one entire class scored no higher than a 3 out of 28 on a quiz, I knew I needed to go back and provide further instruction on the topic before administering the quiz again. I use the admit questions about the previous day's activities to gauge what needs to be reviewed versus what I can move forward on. I use the question on the topic to be discussed to gauge how much background knowledge from previous science classes or other sources they may already have.
2. Describe the concept(s) that you are trying to assess in these assignments. Include a link to the appropriate GSE(s) on RIScienceTeachers. Be sure to include in your description your definition, examples of what it is, why students have difficulty with this concept, and why it is important that you teach this topic
The concepts I have been trying to assess in these assignments is
how individual elements and atoms interact with one another to create various types of compounds and how these compounds differ based on the elements used to create them. This includes everything identifying the type of bonding occurring, predicting the compound that will form from two elements or ions, how to name a compound, how to write a chemical formula when given a name of a compound. The specific GSEs that have been addressed include PS1 (9-11) - 4, PS1 (9-11) - 3
The types of bonding and compounds covered is ionic and covalent. Ionic bonds/compounds are formed between two ions (atoms or polyatoms with a positive or negative charge due to the loss or gain of electrons, respectively) and covalent bonds/compounds are formed when two atoms share at least one pair of electrons in a bond.
Each type of compound has it's own rules for naming, and polyatomic ions (ions consisting of 2 or more atoms bound together by covalent bonds) which have common names that must be memorized. For example, CuCl2 is an ionic compound (it is formed by the Cu2+ ion joining with 2 Cl1- ions) and is named copper (II) chloride, and N2O5 is a covalent compound created by the sharing of electrons between the 2 nitrogen atoms and 5 oxygen atoms to complete each atom's octet and is named dinitrogen pentoxide. Students often have difficulty distinguishing between ionic and covalent compounds, and mix up the naming rules for them (thus naming the CuCl2 as copper dichloride and the N2O5 as nitrogen oxide).
Students also have difficulty knowing how to do the criss-cross method with ionic compounds -- knowing to put the numeric value of the positive charge as a subscript on the anion and the numeric charge of the anion as the subscript on the cation. Or, remembering to account for the charges in ionic compounds when writing the empirical formula from the written name (i.e. not forgetting that copper (II) chloride is CuCl2 as opposed to CuCl or Cu2Cl)
It is important to teach this topic to students in order for them to be able to successfully understand chemical equations, how to balance them and how to determine products from given reactants and vice versa (PS1 (9-11) - 4bb and PS2 (9-11) - 6).
Students who do not understand the concept of correctly writing compounds will not be able to determine how to balance an equation involving the compounds or predict the products of a given reaction -- if they do not understand that certain elements always will take on a specific charge they will write a product with incorrect subscripts and thus have the wrong number of atoms in the product effecting the ability to balance the entire equation.
3. (and 7) Describe an informal assessment that you selected, modified, or designed to address this concept. Summarize the instructions you gave your students and Include a link to the informal assessment here as well.
The informal assessment I designed to address this concept was to have the
students work in groups of 4 to master an individual concept (ionic bonding/compounds, covalent bonding/compounds, multiple bonds, the octet rule and Lewis dot structures, Ions - mono & poly, and binary compounds). Once they mastered their topic they were to create a poster explaining the topic including a title, definition, any rules to the topic, a diagram, and a common example, and present it to the rest of the class as a form of a
modified jigsaw activity. Students were given the list of requirements for their posters, the time limit of 5 minutes for a presentation, the requirement that everyone in the group contribute and participate and a copy of the rubric that would be used to grade the posters & presentations.
Nice rubric. -
4. (and 8) Create a formal assessment. Describe this assessment, including concepts, types of items, and how it was assessed. Include a link to a copy of the assessment here as well.
This was my summative assessment for the unit on bonding and naming, it covered the following concepts: the octet rule, Lewis dot structures, the differences between ionic and covalent bonds and compounds (on the electron level to different physical properties of the two), writing the empirical formula for the ions involved in an ionic bond, naming ionic and covalent compounds given the chemical formula, writing the chemical formula for ionic and covalent compounds given the name, naming hydrates and acids, and a hydrate inquiry experiment. The test was all short answer and short essay questions and was given during a single 66-minute class period. Students who were unable to finish in the time allotted were allowed to return after school or the next class period to complete it. I also allowed one student to answer some questions orally, along with some scaffolding on the topic.
5. Develop the evaluation criteria (or key) for your formal assessment or link it here.
6. Develop the evaluation criteria (or key) for your informal assessment or link it here. This description should include the assessment's features, how it addresses different depths of knowledge, as well as an explanation of how it addresses a scientific practice related to inquiry.
I used the rubric above to grade the presentations and posters. The assessment addressed different depths of knowledge by having students
simply report information as written in the book, interpret information from the book to provide only the portions of the octet rule that are applicable to that specific topic, apply their knowledge by appropriately selecting examples of their topic, synthesis of their topic by creating a graphic representation of the topic on their poster. The posters/presentation were a form of writing scientific explanations where the students had to come up with examples not provided in the book and support their choice with the scientific knowledge they gained on their topic.
How did you assess/provide feedback for these different tasks? This is not clear from your rubric. -
7. & 8. - Already addressed above.
9. For your informal assessment, upload scans of the work of three or four students. The work of each student should be on a different page. At the bottom of each students' page, you should describe the level of student understanding, e.g. high, average, or low, and describe how this is indicated in their answers. An example of how to do this is here. Note: Remember to name the pages you create carefully, e.g. "Smith S10 - High Performing" instead of "High-Performing."
Student Work1
Student Work2
Student Work3
Interesting variation between posters. Students and teachers are in a difficult position when students put forth obvious effort and end up with an incorrect or incomplete product. What type of feedback loop did you set up for these? What steps could you make to insure that final posters were correct and adequate? -
10. For you formal assessment, describe how you think it addressed the concepts you were trying to assess? How did you modify the assessment to address learning differences or special needs?
I feel that the formal assessment appropriately addressed the topics and concepts of the unit, I had several types of naming problems going both from chemical formula to written name and vice versa. I had open ended questions that were designed to have students demonstrate their knowledge of the topics of ionic and covalent bonding that had multiple possible correct answers and I gave students partial credit wherever possible. I modified the assessment to address learning differences and special needs by allowing the students who needed extra time the opportunity to complete the test after school or the next day. I modified it for one student to be able to answer some questions orally with some scaffolding on the topic.
III. Analysis / Reflection
11. Use both the informal and formal assessments to describe what you learned about what your students understand about these concepts. Use specific examples from both the informal and formal assessment to illustrate your points. What can your students do now that they could not before, and what do they still need to learn?
From both my informal and formal assessment I can see that the majority of my students can identify the valence electrons in elements in the s & p blocks and represent these electrons on a Lewis dot structure. One concept that many students are still struggling with is the fact that all ionic compounds contain a metal while covalent compounds contain only nonmetals. This is evident by the lack of this point on the informal assessment posters and the fact that the students had difficulty distinguishing the types of compounds during the naming portion of the formal assessment. After seeing the results of the formal assessment I did some additional instruction on what exactly ionic compounds are on the atomic level and the molecular level and how it behaves differently from covalent compounds in various chemical and physical reactions.
12. OMIT
13. For your formal assessment only, select one student characteristic, e.g. ability, gender, age, etc) and compare the relative performance of each group. Hint: Use box and whiskers plots to compare the two groups. What do you conclude from this comparison? Why?
The formal assessment had a range of scores from 17- 99.5. The mean score was 61, the median score was 67, and the mode was 70.
When comparing the scores of the senior and juniors in the class (13 students) with the scores of the sophomores in the class (10 students), the data produces the box and whiskers plot below. The median score of the upperclassmen was 53.5, with an upper quartile of 71 and a lower quartile at 27, and the overall range in scores for the upperclassmen was 17 to 97. The median score of the lowerclassmen was 70 with an upper quartile score of 77 and a lower quartile score of 62, and the overall range in scores for the lowerclassmen was 30-99.5. As shown by the box and whiskers plot, the lowerclassmen had a tighter cluster of scoring, with the majority of students receiving at or above the passing score of 65. All of the lowerclassmen in the class are taking one other science class in addition to this college prep chemistry, and so a possible conclusion to draw is that the lowerclassmen scored slightly higher because they have a larger commitment to their science education or have better study habits. To be placed in college prep chemistry students must have done well in their previous science classes, and for the sophomores to be allowed to simultaneously take chemistry and biology they must have demonstrated responsibility towards completing classwork and likely ability to handle the heavier class load. However, the two middle quartiles overlap on both plots so the difference in scores is largely negligible.
Still, a pretty noticeable difference. -
14. Describe any ways in which you involved students in self-assessment. How did you communicate what you learned from your informal and formal assessments to your students? What did they do with this information?
Immediately following completion of the informal assessment I had the students do a self-assessment on both their own individual performance/contribution and on their group as a whole. Students used a scale of 1-3 where 3 was the highest score indicating above average presentation and poster, majority of time spent on task, and a 1 indicated a poor presentation missing the majority of the important information, and the majority of time spent off task. I also asked the students to list their individual contribution to their group's project. I used the students self-assessment to influence the individual score portion of the informal assessment. The majority of students were thoughtful in their responses and accurately portrayed the amount of work they individually contributed to their group.
I communicated what I learned from the informal assessment to the entire class immediately following each presentation, making note of any errors or key missing information. For the formal assessment, I gave the tests back and discussed the score range with the class during the next class period. I discussed the most commonly missed items and where in their notes we discussed the topics and when. Any student who scored below a 65 on the test was able to revise their test using the textbook and class notes up to a score of 65. Regardless of how many points they were away from a 65 I had all students doing revisions correct all incorrect answers to ensure they were able to understand all topics.
In addition, the class-wide troubles with going from a chemical formula to written name and back again have resulted in me giving further quizzes on chemical naming. I will lead a class discussion on the topic where I ask the students to use their notes and write the rules for naming various compounds on the board in turn, collaborating to create one document that can be used to study for their quiz. Until 75% of the students can get a 75% or higher on the naming quizzes I will be having them twice a week.
15: Most Important: Compare your objectives for student learning (both in terms of science concepts and practices) to the student learning you observed. What did you learn about your teaching based on the student performances? What will you do differently next time? Why would you make these changes? What, if anything, will you do to improve the assessment instruments?
Based on the formal assessment, only about 50% of the students met the learning objectives for demonstrating the differences between ionic and covalent bonding and compounds, especially with regard to being able to accurately name compounds. Since this is the key concept from this unit upon which the future units are based, additional instruction on this topic is needed. In the future I think I will do more whole-class activities involving naming to be able to monitor all students comprehension levels on the subject and allow them to learn from one another as well. In the future, I will need to word question 23 more specifically, stating that I am looking for physical and chemical differences, and how many minimum specific points I am looking for.
22/24 Nice job overall. You did a nice job analyzing your Ss posters, though it is not clear what feedback you provided them. Your rubric allowed them to see the importance of each portion of the project, but you could make your rubric more detailed in order to communicate higher expectations to your sophomores. Your reflections indicate that you see your students' need for more practice, but you should also think in more detail about the assignments that you used and why your students had difficulty with specific concepts/tasks. -